Super Zeroes
Super Zeroes is the second part of the sixth episode of season 3. Synopsis In their attempts to be better heroes, the Girls decide to take inspiration from their favorite comics, only to become better zeroes. Plot The Powerpuff Girls are sitting around reading their favorite comics: The Wonder Woman-inspired Freedom Gal for Blossom, an angst-driven, Spawn-inspired Spore for Buttercup, and the cute adventures of the Japanese Bunny-Bunny for Bubbles reminiscent of Hello Kitty. However, after disputing which character is better, the Professor reminds them that they are better heroes than them just by their mere existence, but they feel otherwise as they lack gadgets, vehicles, attitude, and even costumes. The girls eventually act on their preconceived notions of what makes a hero as they dart to their room. Meanwhile, Townsville is under siege by yet another monster, but as he ravages through the town, the girls ready their new personas: Blossom becomes the patriotic Liberty Belle, inspired by Freedom Gal; Bubbles assumes the name Harmony Bunny from her favorite Bunny-Bunny, and Buttercup's new brooding identity is simply Mange as she borrows inspiration from Spore. Soon as they are able to respond to the distress call, the Professor expresses disgust in how late they were to respond to the crisis. The next day, they sleep in their costumes just to be prepared in advance, and now they get their chance when the monster comes once again to destroy Townsville. However, the problems go deeper now. Blossom as Liberty Belle drives her car--the Morality Mobile--into town, but due to a traffic jam, she is forced to slow down. Bubbles as Harmony Bunny hops towards the monster on a pogo stick, which is as slow as Blossom now stuck in traffic. As for Buttercup, as Mange, she waits until nightfall to make her move just as Spore does. By the time the girls finally reach Townsville after several hours, the monster had already left. The Mayor, like the Professor, is also disgusted at their new attempts to be better heroes. The dawn of the third day has them sleeping in Townsville proper in their costumes, but the fight with the monster is as convoluted as it is inefficient. Liberty Belle (Blossom)'s weapon, the Lariat of Guilt, proves to be ineffective against the monster, as do Harmony Bunny (Bubbles)'s "happy stickers." Nor does Mange (Buttercup) help because of the brightness that is the broad daylight. This went on for quite some time until the monster, Steve gets disgusted at this. He explains that not only had he been waiting for three days for the Powerpuff Girls to fight him, and gets what he describes as "two days of no-shows and now this", calling Blossom "a flag girl who does rope tricks", Bubbles "some rabbit”, and Buttercup "a Little Miss Darkness who's afraid of a little sun". They assert that they're real superheroes now, but Steve goes on to explain that when a monster visits Townsville, it has to fight the Girls as a rite of passage on Monster Isle, and will be hailed as a hero if it survives. He then tells them their bit of mirroring other comic book heroes won't work out, as they don't lust for vengeance, use happy-face stickers or tricked-out vehicles to be superheroes, and tells them to be themselves. They thank him for the advice and then proceed to beat him up. The monster was thankful to be defeated by real heroes. Trivia *In the second Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z! opening, Momoko (Blossom), Miyako (Bubbles), and Kaoru (Buttercup) wear the costumes based on the ones in the "Super Zeroes" episode. *The comics the Girls read are all based on other comic book characters. Freedom Gal is based on Silver Age superhero comics, taking inspiration from Wonder Woman (in her outfit and lasso) with some Batman (the Morality Mobile is reminiscent of the Batmobile). Spore is of course based on Spawn (indeed, the full title is "Old MacDonald's Angry Spore," a reference to Todd MacFarlane). The Great Funtime Adventures of Bunny Bunny and Friends is based on Japanese kodomomuke (children's) manga and Hello Kitty. **In addition, when Bubbles mentions "feeling tormented" in regards to Spore, this could possibly a reference to Torment, a Spider-Man story written and drawn by Todd MacFarlane as well. *On the Mayor's watch, there is a creature resembling Jigglypuff from Pokémon. *The island that the monsters are living on maybe a reference to "Skull Island" from King Kong. It's more likely to be a reference to the Godzilla ''franchise, as monsters live on an island known as ''Monster Island. **The tentacled monster in Steve's explanation is the same one from "Bubblevicious". *In the French translation of PPG, Blossom's name is Belle maybe meaning her comic book name is literally Liberty Beauty. *The SpongeBob SquarePants ''episode "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy V" is noted for having a similar plot. *In Gorillaz' lyric booklet their latest studio album The Now Now, a shot of Bubbles taken directly from this episode of the show is included in one of the pages. *The Hotline is placed in the living room, whereas it is usually in the girls' room. *Steve seems to be inspired by Hedorah from the ''Godzilla ''franchise. *This is the only episode when Bubbles reads and speaks Japanese on her ''The Great Funtime Adventures of Bunny Bunny and Friend ''comic. *'Running Gag:''' Someone glaring at the girls for their failure to stop the monster and telling them "Better heroes, huh?". *Freedom Gal is a parody of Wonder Woman, while Blossom's version of her: Liberty Belle, is a parody of the Liberty Bell. * If the superheroes the Girls were parodying were real, they would most likely share Steve's opinion of them being copycats. *Moral: Be yourself, no matter what. Category:Episodes Category:Season 3 Category:Episodes storyboarded by Clay Morrow Category:Episodes directed by John McIntyre Category:Episodes focusing on all three girls Category:Episodes directed by Craig McCracken Category:Episodes written by Amy Keating Rogers Category:2000 episodes Category:Episodes written by Clay Morrow Category:Episodes written by David Smith Category:Episodes that feature monsters